The office that provides lawyers to indigent defendants in federal criminal cases nationwide is one agency hard hit by sweeping government budget cuts.

In many cases, it has been hard to gauge the impact of $85 billion in mandatory austerity through September, called sequester, since it took effect March 1 over the inability of Congress to reach a spending agreement.

But consequences for the U.S. Office of the Public Defender have been stark.

"They want us to do more cases with less time," said A.J. Kramer, the federal public defender for the District of Columbia.